Welcome to Our life At Sea. We are Mark & Nicolle who are cruising on our much loved Beneteau 393 sailing yacht Sea Life. We are already half way through our first circumnavigation of the world. We have sailed over 27,000 nautical miles at sea visiting The Caribbean, Panama, Galapagos, Marquesas, Tonga, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia Singapore, Thailand, Salalah, Oman, and Egypt. Our longest passage at sea so far has been 26 days and our shortest only 10 days. We have transited the Panama Canal, The Suez Canal, sailed in The Caribbean Sea, The Great Barrier Reef, crossed The Pacific Ocean, The Indian Ocean, The Malacca Straits, The Singapore Straits, Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Aden (Pirate Alley) and survived a cyclone at anchor!
We are currently cruising this season in Europe. We like to cruise in a relaxed style, we don't see everything in each place, we leave some things for next time. We also prefer to see lots of the world than just see lots of one area in the world. Please feel free to contact us onboard Sea Life via the contact page. We hope you enjoy Our Life At Sea. We just add little bits here and there, (we are too busy having fun cruising to spend too much time on the computer). Smiles & happiness, have a happy year cruising at sea or on land! Mark, Nic & Sea Life xxoo.
Current location 28th July, Capri, Italy!
The beautiful Trevi Fountain where we sat and had our lunch during our walking day around the city of Rome
25 & 26th July - Pompeii & Rome, Italy
Mark outside The Coliseum, Italy
A lovely view of Pompeii with Mount Vesuvius in the background
24th -28th July- Salerno, Italy!
16th July 2010 - Methoni, Mainland Greece
10th July 2010, arrived on mainland Greece - Methoni!
8th July 2010 - A scenic sailing tour past Santorini and through the beautiful islands of Thira, The Cyclades, The Greek Islands!
7th,8th July July 2010 - Folegandros Island, The Cyclades, The Greek Islands!
The view from the town of Kastro to the lovely blue domed church sitting on the edge of the island
4th - 7th July 2010 - Sifnos Island, The Cyclades, The Greek Islands!
The view from the chora in Serifos down into the town and the bay
3rd, 4th July 2010 - Serifos Island, The Cyclades, The Greek Islands!
A beautiful blue domed church in the chora (village) on the mountains in Serifos
29th June - 3rd July 2010 - Syros Island, The Cyclades, The Greek Islands!
A lovely quaint street in Syros with the famous bright, colourful Bougainvillea
The beautiful crystal clear water at our lovely little beach just a short walk from Sea Life in Syros. We swim here many times each day, it is lovely and refreshing during the warm summer days
beautiful bouganvilla gracefully sweeping off a cute white and blue Greek house in Syros
A beautiful view from the hill of the town of Syros (after our long walk through the town and up step hills and stairs!), blue domed churches and Seas Life tied to the harbour quay somewhere down below
A cute, narrow, marble Greek street with beautiful Bougainvillea, blue domed church, Mark and two perfect little pussy cats posing for the photo
29th June 2010 -Hello Greek Islands! Yay we are now in Greece cruising the beautiful Greek Islands. Sea Life is now in Europe! How exciting!
Lovely Miss Sea Life happy to be in Greece and tied to the very nice harbour quay in Syros with restaurants and the town behind her. Syros is a beautiful town with marble streets and marble buildings everywhere, very nice!
29th June 2010 - Arrived in Syros, Greece, Cyclades - Greek Islands!
Beautiful bouganvilla gracefully decorating the charming street in Syros
26th June 2010 - Goodbye Turkey (we loved you and will miss you!), The Mediterranean! After almost 3 months we left Marmaris behind and sailed out to sea for a 3 day passage to Greece
Our favorite performers from the Marmaris Folk Dance competition in the Amphitheatre
A beautiful afternoon view of the gulets tied to the town quay with the Marmaris Fortress in the background and the beautiful mountains as a backdrop
A lovely collection of our market produce from the weekly markets in Marmaris, we enjoyed buying lots of delicious fresh fruit and vegetables
18th May - Marmaris, Turkey.
16th May - Kinidos, Turkey. On our way to Marmaris.
12th May - 16th May - Gumusluk, Turkey
8th May - Ancient City of Ephesus (Efes), Turkey
Mark performing on one of the most grand and ancient stages, The Great Theatre, Ancient city of Ephesus (Efes), Turkey
A close up view of part of the front of the beautiful Library of Celsus, Ancient City of Ephesus (Efes), Turkey
6th May - Foca -Eskifoca (Old town)
Us relaxing in our very own natural hot spring on the seashore at Bademli Limani, Turkey. A beautiful view with Sea Life in it too!
Another hot spring, this is a larger one and is inside a historic, old crumbling structure, Bademli Limani. The water is so warm and lovely, a wonderful start to the day with the birds singing and the beautiful scenery and fresh air. Life is good!
2nd - 4th May - Behramkale (Ancient Assos) Turkey - An ancient city, Temple of Athena, beautiful little harbour !
Sea Life in her berth right in front of the lovely little village and restaurants in Behram Kale (Ancient Assos)
We berthed Sea Life right of the lovely little row of restaurants in Behram Kale (Ancient Assos) and stepped ashore to explore this beautiful little harbour & quaint village. We enjoyed a fabulous walk up through the farmland, olive groves and local town area up the hill to the ancient Temple of Athena (our first temple in the Mediterranean). Glorious views of the coast all around. A beautiful and delightful little harbour. We love it.
Temple of Athena in Behram Kale (Ancient Assos)
1st May - Bozcaada Island, North Turkey - A Castle and Red Wine! We loved Bozcaada, a quaint little Turkish fishing village with great local red wine, great food, lovely people and a beautiful castle. It was our very first castle in the Mediterranean which we enjoyed
Us in front of the gorgeous Bozcaada Island Castle, the castle is surrounded by beautiufl blossom trees, wildflowers and red poppies - our favorite!
Mark sitting in a room with a view in the Bozcaada Castle, he can see our beautiful yacht Sea Life sitting in the harbour (she is the one in the middle)
1st May sailing on a beautiful day to Bozcaada, we sailed across the busy Dardanelle's shipping lane for the second time, the first time with were motoring and it was during the night. Today is was a glorious day, gentle winds, sunshine and full sails up, even our genoa was poled out.
Beautiful red poppies along the beach at Anzac Cove, Gelibolu (Gallipoli) Peninsular, North Turkey
25th April - ANZAC DAY - Gallipoli - We walked to North Cove and slept overnight where the ANZAC soliders landed in 1915 in the First World War, then attended the dawn service & then walked to Lone Pine for the Australian Anzac Day service. A very moving and special experience for us both. We also walked to the Nek cemetery to see the trenches and the area where they fought against the Turkish 95 years ago. If you would like to read more about our Gallipoli experience with Sea Life Click here
North Cove Beach one of the beaches were soliders landed in 1915 in the Gelibolu (Gallipoli) Peninsular, North Turkey (the Sphinx is featured coming out of the cliffs, it reminded the soliders of the Sphinx in Giza, Egypt)
Shrapnel Valley War Cemetery, Gelibolu (Gallipoli) Peninsular, North Turkey
17th April 2010 - We motor sailed for three days and now we are further North in a lovely little port called Kabatepe, a small fishing vilage. Sea Life is in a berth with all the local fishing boats, very quaint and atmospheric! It is close to ANZAC Cove at Gallipoli and we made a run close to the beach seeing what the soldiers saw just before they landed. We will attend the dawn service at ANZAC Cove on the 95th for ANZAC Day to remember our brave soliders who died here in the First World War.
Our first ANZAC poppie is growing just near our boat in a small field of wild flowers. They grow isolated, or maybe up to about 4 flowers together, so theres just a splash of blood red in amongst the sea of colour.
Today, Saturday 10th April 2010 we are celebrating our 2 years of sailing around the world on Sea Life. 25,00 nm at sea! So many magnificent places, memories, friends and adventures have been had and there are many more to come..... We are having fresh Turkish trout with salad for dinner with some nice French red wine and Turkish Delight for desert, yummy!
8th April 2010 -We have arrived in the Mediterranean (after a four day sail into the wind up to 38kts on the nose), in Fethieye, Turkey! YAY!!
A beautiful view from Fethieye in Adasi Bay of the snow capped mountains
2nd & 3rd April 2010 - Transited the Suez Canal, Egypt. Click HERE for a full description.
There are many horror stories from cruisers about transiting the Suez Canal. We had a wonderful time, lots of fun and paid only a small amount of baksheesh ($10 USD to each of our pilots - is the normal amount), the scenery was interesting, especially in the second half of the canal. It was exciting to go past the convoys of large ships during our transit, just as it was fun to be so close to the ships when we transited the Panama Canal in 2008. If you would like to read more about our Suez Canal transit Click here
A beautiful natural pryamid in the famous Valley of the Kings, Luxor Egypt.
16th - 25th March - 10 day Land Travel trip through Egypt. We visited Luxor, Cairo & Siwa Oasis, seeing along the way the tombs of the famous Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, The Nile River, Temple of Hatshepsut, Karnak Temple, Cairo city, the Pyramids of Giza, the Egyptian Museum (where we even saw mummies), Siwa Oasis, the famous cold and hot springs found there, Fatnas Island, the Temple of Ammon where Alexander the Great visited the oracle and the beautiful sand dunes of the Great Sand Sea desert.
Sand dunes in the Great Sand Sea Desert, Siwa Oasis.
Us relaxing with toes in the sand watching the sunset, Great Sand Sea Desert, Siwa Oasis.
The heavenly natural hot spring we soaked in, surrounded by palm trees in the middle of the Great Sand Sea Desert, Siwa Oasis.
Us in front of the very popular Hatshepsut Temple in Luxor, Egypt.
A gorgeous sunset over the Nile River.
18th Febuary - 10th March, passage of 1500 nautical miles from Oman through the Gulf of Aden and up most of the Red Sea.
Nic watching out for pirate skiffs in the Gulf of Aden, sunset and sunrise were the most dangerous times for us for possible pirate attacks
6th - 18th Febuary,Salalah, Oman.
Some happy, friendly dolphins playing with Sea Life on the way to Oman in the Indian Ocean
10th January - 6th Febuary, passage across the Indian Ocean to Oman, 2800 nautical miles. We had a wonderful passage from Phuket to Oman, it was a really nice chance to relax before our long and difficult passages coming up ahead. We saw lots of whales, dolphins, sea turtles and sea birds. We even had a little bird come and sleep in our front cabin for the night. We called her tweet because she was always busy talking and singing to us, isn't she beautiful?
Our special little baby bird tweet, our guest for the night in the Indian Ocean
Beautiful cloud formations across the Indian Ocean passage which took us 26 days!
6th January 2010! Phuket, Thailand- HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
The beautiful limestone backdrops of Phang Nga National Park, Thailand
Mark does a great James Bond off James Bond Island of all places!
Lighting a paper lantern on Sea Life at Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand for New Years Eve.
Elephant trekking in Nai Harn Beach, Phuket Thailand, an amazing experience.
Starting the new year with a fish foot spa, it tickles (there were lots of giggles of course) and feels really wierd at first but we got used to the sensation after about 5 minutes or so!
FOR MORE THAILAND PHOTOS & TO SEE OUR CRUISING FROM LAST YEAR, SEE OUR 2009 PAGE!